Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon A Time Crossover
Season 1, between episodes 7 and 8

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

Vidia didn't understand. Neither her queen nor her friend knew their own names. They were humans and had no wings, yet neither seemed to notice or care. She was in a place she did not know, surrounded by humans who didn't think twice about who or what she was. Maybe that was in outward appearance only. They could be trying to act friendly so they could dissect her later without much fuss being made. A trick to gain her confidence and cooperation.

So why then why were Queen Clarion and Tinker Bell helping these humans?

Vidia went back to her first thought. Why were Queen Clarion and Tinker Bell human and not fairies? Why was she a human? What brand of magic had caused this to happen to them? She had no recollection of any kind of spell or curse that could have done this. Queen Clarion and Tinker Bell didn't seem to remember, either, or they would have told her.

She also had no idea what these devices were that surrounded her. How could the magic tablet draw lines across its face? Where did those numbers come from that sat aside those lines? What did these strange vines do that had been reattached to her chest? Was it necessary to drip water into her arm? And why was the room so cold? Were they in the Winter Woods?

Remembering her time with Lizzy and Dr. Martin Griffiths, Vidia eventually construed that the large rectangles of bright white light in the ceiling were some form of artificial illumination. Lizzy lived by gaslight, but these looked nothing like the gas jets that had been installed in the Griffiths' summer home.

There was also the matter of what all these things were made of? The bed on which she was laying had railings that felt like metal, not wood or bamboo. The curtains that surrounded her should have been made of leaves or woven blades of grass, but they were a cloth that none in Pixie Hollow could fashion.

She was just as confused by the clothes Tinker Bell was wearing. Tink always wore her little green dress. She had a few variations of it for when she went into the frozen world of the Winter Woods or the cool Autumn Forest. Today, though, Tink wore snug fitting leggings in blue, rather than tinker green. Her shirt was pink, but was partly hidden by a thin coat. Her hair was different, too. Instead of a bun, Tink's hair was coiled into two pigtails.

Then there was Queen Clarion, who had never looked less regal than she did now. The one person who had always looked the role of a perfect leader today appeared weak and shaken. Her demeanor, her posture, her entire body looked as if she were carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and couldn't manage the load. The queen she knew would never present herself as looking so weary.

The entire world that the fast flyer knew was gone and replaced by this one. A place she could not possibly understand, and not one person she recognized was able to recognize her. It was like they were imposters, but at least imposters would at least try to act like the persons they were replacing. Tink and Queen Clarion didn't even do that. There had to be an answer for this, but where could she look. If this was Pixie Hollow she would know where to start. But here, in …Mainebrook, was it? Here she was lost. Lost and alone.

THE GRIFFITHS' SUMMER HOME (Outside London, England during the Edwardian Period)

It was barely a month and a half since the fairies of Never Land were forced to abandon their homes. The new Pixie Dust Tree in the meadow adjacent to the Griffiths' summer home was still just a sapling. It could not yet produce the dust so desperately needed by the tiny winged creatures that tended to it on a daily basis.

The three warm season ministers were in Dr. Griffith's study engaged in a conference about the tree.

"If this keeps up will be out of dust long before that thing can produce more," Hyacinth noted. "Well miss an entire season."

"The upcoming season is Winter," Redleaf reminded him. "It will be up to Lord Milori and his winter fairies to bring the next season."

"And what if they can't?" Sunflower asked. "What if he is having the same problem we are? A shortage of pixie dust. Winter will never come this year. Oh, I can't even imagine how badly that will be for the humans of the mainland."

"No winter snows, a warm Christmas celebration, the entire world will suffer because of this awful curse," Hyacinth observed. "Who is Queen Regina? Why did she unleash the curse upon us anyway?"

Redleaf then brought up a topic that no other minister wanted to talk about. "Why has no new queen appeared?"

"What?" Hyacinth gasped.

"How dare you?" Sunflower yelped.

"Queen Clarion is alive and somewhere out there in the English Channel. I'm sure of it," Hyacinth huffed. "Why we aren't looking for her is beyond me?"

"We all saw what happened, Minister," Redleaf answered. "The queen was consumed by the dark mist that brought the curse. If what The Blue Fairy said was true, she is gone. Lost to us forever."

"Not forever," Sunflower cut in. "She said that a savior would rescue them after twenty eight years. Someone who would break the curse."

"Oh yes, of course. Well that makes me feel so much better now," Hyacinth answered rudely. "All we have to do is just wait for twenty eight years to pass and everything will be just fine. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?"

"Minister?" Redleaf chided.

"Can you seriously ask us to wait for twenty eight years for this 'savior' to somehow break the curse and return our queen to us? What shall we do until then? Play games? Watch the theater? Perhaps we can all stand around and watch the pixie dust tree grow ever so slowly!"

"That is enough!" Redleaf yelled. "We are not here to debate the merits or lack thereof of this curse. We must figure out a way to deliver Spring to the mainland without wasting all our precious pixie dust before then."

The door to the study swung open. "Ministers, please keep it down," Martin Griffiths told them. "The other fairies will hear you."

When the fairies of Never Land arrived in the meadow the plan had been to establish a new Pixie Hollow colony in the grassy meadow. However, it was pointed out that unlike Never Land, this world was subject to the changes in temperatures that the fairies brought every year. When the winter fairies brought their seasonal changes, everyone would freeze. Their wings would break from the extended exposure to cold temperatures.

It was quickly decided that all the fairies would live inside the Griffiths' summer home year round. The house was huge and offered too much room for just two persons to live. Especially when those two spent most of the year in the city. Each guild was to be assigned a room of their own. With so many guilds, though, two, three or even four were asked to live in the same space in close quarters. Shelves were brought in to facilitate a vertical building dynamic and small ladders were fashioned to allow the fairies and sparrow men to move about within their own "guild villages" without using up pixie dust to fly.

Dr. Griffiths and Elizabeth helped out as much as they could. They provided building materials, bought and prepared as much food as was reasonable and added a series of model railroad systems in their home to allow the fairies to move through the house. Lizzy even unpacked her old dollhouse so that the three minister could have a nice place all their own to sleep.

"If they hear you squabbling like this, they will lose hope. You must lead by example," Martin reminded them. "It is what her highness Queen Clarion would do, I'm sure of it."

Martin Griffiths had only met Queen Clarion a few times. His certainty came more from his experiences living under the monarchy of England. Specifically, the long lived Queen Victoria whose reign had just recently ended with her death at the ripe old age of eighty one. He presumed that any good queen would be outwardly strong and show little or no weakness. Emotions were closely guarded so as to avoid undermining the confidence of her subjects.

"Yes, Doctor, quite right," Redleaf answered. "We shall focus on the necessities at hand," he said.

Just then, a scout talent sparrow man flitted into the room. He was out of breath when he touched down in front of the dollhouse where the ministers were conferencing.

"Why are you flying?" Hyacinth bellowed angrily. "You know we must conserve every grain of our precious dust."

"It is a communiqué from the winter fairies, Prime Minister," the scout said, addressing Redleaf and handing him a letter written in fairy language.

"Thank you," Redleaf said, taking the letter.

Dr. Griffiths set out his hand and took the scout talent out of the room in his shirt pocket, helping the out of breath sparrow man to recover and conserve his ration of dust.

"What is it? What does it say?" Sunflower pleaded.

Prime Minister Redleaf's face turned pained. "It's from Snowflake. Lord Milori didn't make it. He was consumed by the purple mist."

"Oh no!" Sunflower gasped. "Not both of them? Not both of our leaders?"

"What will they do?" Hyacinth asked.

Redleaf kept reading. "Snowflake is now the new Lady of Winter. Their supply of pixie dust is very low and she is uncertain if her fairies can bring their season to the mainland this year."

"What about their pixie dust tree?" Hyacinth asked, sounding indignant.

"They are having the same problems we are," Redleaf answered. "Their tree is growing slowly. It won't be ready for at least another two or three seasons."

"What will we do for winter?" Sunflower asked. "What will the mainland be like without the seasons?"

Prime Minister Redleaf had no answer for his two friends.

He didn't want this role as leader of all the fairies. He wasn't prepared for it. His talent lay in overseeing the fairies that brought the autumn season. That was why they had a queen. She possessed every talent in Pixie Hollow as well as one unique to the queen: Leadership. So why hadn't a new queen arrived? That's when it dawned on him. The laugh that would bring a new queen to the fairies would go to Never Land and Pixie Hollow, not the meadow behind a human house.

His heart sunk as he imagined so many first laughs going all the way to Never Land only to die in the purple mist that surrounded their precious island. Among those laughs, a new fairy queen that would never be born. He wept for them. For all those new arrivals that would never get the chance to live.

Then he gave an utterly incredulous order. "Gather the scouts. I want scouting parties in balloon carriers to patrol the outer reaches of Never Land Island. They are to search out and capture every new laugh destined for Pixie Hollow. They are to gather them up and bring them here."

"Prime Minister? Are you insane? Do you know how much pixie dust will be wasted on such folly?" Hyacinth gasped.

Redleaf answered with a glare that only Queen Clarion had been able to muster in the past.

"Immediately, Prime Minister," Hyacinth said, bowing as he exited.

"Red?" Sunflower asked.

"We're losing fairies," he said. "They are dying out there, one of them maybe our new queen. We must save them. Every one of them."

Thank your for reading and keeping up with this story. I want to hear from you, please leave a review or comment. Thanks.